Roles and Permissions in Canvas

Permissions and Roles in Canvas

In Canvas at Rice University, permissions allow users to access certain features and perform certain functions. Roles are essentially collections of permissions set at the system, campus, school, and department levels (i.e., roles cannot be modified by instructors).

A user's permissions are determined by the role(s) the user is assigned. Roles and their permissions are cumulative. Consequently, if you add someone to your course site multiple times, assigning that person a different role each time, he or she will have the combined permissions of each role you assigned.

Important: Users in the Teacher, TA, and Grader roles can view and edit student grade information. Any Non-Rice user who will hold one of these roles must complete the FERPA Tutorial and submit the RiceUniversityInstructor:TeachingAssistantAgreement.docx before being assigned to the role in Canvas.

Following are the course roles currently available at Rice:

ROLE	PERMISSIONS
Teacher	For instructors and assistants who need full access to the Canvas features for instruction
Librarian	Assistants who need access to the tools necessary to assist in managing course content. Has limited ability to interact with students and has no access to grades or grading.
TA	Has access to all Canvas features for instruction, with exception to managing announcements and moderating outcomes and grades.
Non-grading TA	For teaching assistants who do not need the ability to grade.
Grader	For individuals who will be grading items in Canvas. The Grader role is based on the TA role, but has more limited permissions enabled. Graders can view all course content including assignments, quizzes, and discussions; however, unlike users in the TA role, Graders cannot edit course content.
Designer	For instructional designers (and staff with similar responsibilities) who write and manage course content, but do not actually teach courses or grade student work
Student	For students officially enrolled in the course only.
Observer	For users who have no official role in the course, but have been given permission to view course content and discussion forums; for more, see What is the Observer role?in the Canvas Observer Guide.

Permissions	Student	TA	Grader	Non-Grading TA	Teacher	Designer	Observer	Librarian
COURSE & ACCOUNT PERMISSIONS
Add, edit, and delete events on the course calendar		*		*	*	*
Add/remove other teachers, course designers, or TAs to the course					*
Add/remove students from the course		*		*	*	*
Change course status					*	*
Create and edit assessing rubrics		*			*	*
Create student collaborations	*	*		*	*	*
Create web conferences	*	*		*	*	*
Edit grades		*		*	*
Manage (add/edit/delete) assignments and quizzes		*		*	*	*
Manage (add/edit/delete) course files		*		*	*	*		*
Manage (add/edit/delete) pages		*		*	*	*		*
Manage (add/edit/delete) course sections					*	*
Manage (add/edit/delete) groups		*		*	*	*
Manage alerts					*
Manage all other course content		*		*	*	*		*
Manage learning outcomes					*	*
Moderate grades					*
Moderate discussions (delete/edit other's posts, lock topics)		*		*	*	*
Post to discussions	*	*	*	*	*	*		*
Read SIS data					*
See the list of users	*	*	*	*	*	*
Send messages to individual course members	*	*	*	*	*	*
Send messages to the entire class		*	*	*	*	*
View all grades		*	*		*
View all students' submissions and make comments on them		*	*		*	*
View analytics pages		*	*	*	*
View and link to question banks		*	*	*	*	*
View announcements	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
View discussions	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
View the group pages of all student groups		*	*	*	*	*
View usage reports for the course		*	*	*	*	*